The Autonomy Bug

"Blueberry House is a hive of efficiency."

Writer: Scott Gray

Format: Comic Strip

Released: October-December 2000

Printed in: DWM 297-299

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Izzy

Synopsis

On behalf of an old friend, the Doctor visits Blueberry house and finds that Dr Andrelina Hastoff is in charge of rehabilitating robots with supposed 'severe programming deviancy'. But the Doctor soon finds the truth is far worse...

Verdict

The Autonomy Bug was a good comic strip adventure to conclude my reading of The Glorious Dead graphic novel! It's been quite the adventure reading this collection of stories from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine as I've got to know Kroton going back to the backup stories from the era of the Fourth Doctor before he joined forces with the Eighth Doctor and Izzy for a ten-part epic that saw the return of the Master in a new incarnation exclusive to the comic strip. The story building up to that was very good and we also had a 35th Anniversary of the show along with a 20th Anniversary of the magazine. After such a lengthy adventure to conclude the story arc, this feels like a slightly underwhelming finale to the collection and that is perhaps why the stories were printed out of release order. I didn't go with that approach though and I'm glad with my decision, but that's not at all to say that this was a bad story! It had a very intriguing concept at its heart with the idea of robots thinking they were human really interesting. Izzy's reaction to the cluster of robots she was trapped with talking as if they were human after the painting test was excellent and the look of horror on the robots' face was brilliant. The style of the story itself was different to what we've had come before it and it really has felt a little bit like an experimental time with the magazine's comic strip. I liked how this all turned out to be told as a narration from one of the robots saved by the Doctor and Izzy which was a rather cute ending. Izzy had a lot more to do than in recent adventures which I liked and her interaction and compassion with the robots was great. The Blueberry House setting was fun and I liked how the Doctor's old friend Carstairs was his way in for a purely unofficial visit. Hastoff was a good villain and her experiments with sentience in robots was really interesting to play with. It continues a recent theme with Kroton and robotic creatures thinking and feeling, and the part one cliffhanger being resolved with Izzy expressing pain mode sense. They were going to make her armless! Some of the words in the narration being as if a child was speaking them was a nice touch and gave this story quite a chilled and cute feel despite the threat facing Izzy. The designs of some of the robots were brilliant and I can tell that the artists had fun drawing. Emperor Zero being depressed made for a good development in the story and his role in bringing about the downfall of Blueberry House was decent, and quite the impactful moment! The children overtaking the house and essentially running the asylum now was a fun way to end and it was really nice for them to show mercy to Hastoff when they could easily have disposed of and killed her. That was exactly what the Doctor was hoping for, and he got his wish. Things ended rather nicely then with the Doctor and Izzy solving the issues, and the final page being the reveal of the robots recalling events was terrific. Overall, a decent adventure to conclude a great collection!

Rating: 7/10